Bryan Cranston’sportrayal
of Lyndon B. Johnson in All The Way
is the stuff they should teach in acting classes. We knew the 4-time Emmy
winner could act thanks to his work on Breaking
Bad, but holy cow did he put the exclamation point on his career. It’s
cliché, but you truly lose Cranston in the role… The only other actor that
comes close to Cranston is Courtney B.
Vance- who was the prohibitive favorite when The People vs. O.J. Simpson ended. Vance’s portrayal of famed
lawyer Johnnie Cochran was that of legend. He perfectly played Cochran’s
boisterous public persona but brought humanity and warmth to the role when we
saw him in his private life… Andy
Sambergdoesn’t have a snowball’s
Hell in chance of winning this award for his work in the delightfully silly 7 Days In Hell, but he sure was great in
it. Perfectly shot and edited in the style of an ESPN 30 For 30 film, 7 Days
in Hell is a goofy parody with Samberg’s bad boy tennis star Aaron Williams
leading the charge… It took me a while to get over the fact that Paul Sparks wasn’t the annoying Mickey
Doyle from Boardwalk Empire when I
was watching The Girlfriend Experience- which
is a testament to how good Sparks was as the sleezy David Tellis… Time has
already proven how great of an actor Oscar
Isaac is, and watching one scene of Show
Me A Hero lets you know that Isaac deserves all of the awards… Patrick Wilsonwas not as flashy of a name as Billy Bob Thornton, or even
Martin Freeman, but he’s an excellent actor who brought quiet grace and honor
to a young Lou Solverson in the second season of Fargo.

BEST ACTRESS

- Kirsten Dunst (Fargo)

- Julianne Hough (Grease: Live)

- Riley Keough (The Girlfriend Experience)

- Sarah Paulson (The People vs. OJ Simpson)

- Kerry Washington (Confirmation)

- Shanice Williams (The Wiz Live!)

Prosecutor Marcia Clark was
always a divisive and disliked figure during the trial of O.J. Simpson, yet Sarah Paulson was able to bring heart
and humanity to her portrayal of Clark which helped change our minds on how we
felt about her 20 years ago. Paulson was so good, she made Tina Fey switch her Emmy status so Fey could vote for her… Another divisive and talked about public
female was Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination
hearings. Hill was played superbly by Kerry
Washingtonin the HBO movie Confirmation. While she didn’t get as
much screen time as Paulson, Washington’s work, like Paulson, helped show the
ugliness our society can have towards the treatment of women… I love Riley Keough’swork in The Girlfriend
Experience. Her character Christine Reade is so cold and calculating that
it might turn some people off, but it works for the show. Keough makes
Christine interesting for a role on paper that appears bland… Since Spider-Man, Kristen Dunstleft the
public eye to do Lars Van Trier and Sofia Coppola films, but she made her
glorious return as the warm, yet manipulative Peggy Blumquist. She was the real
star of the second season of Fargo
and worthy of this nomination… Lastly, we have Julianna Houghand Shanice Williams, respective stars of
NBC’s and FOX’s live musicals Grease
and The Wiz. FOX has been doing live
musicals for the past couple of years now, but Grease and The Wiz showed
the world how much better and how great they could be. These shows were as good
as they were thanks to their stars Hough (who was perfectly cast as the
reincarnation of Olivia Newton John as Sandy) and Williams.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

- Sterling K. Brown (The People vs. OJ Simpson)

- Kit Harrington (7 Days in Hell)

- Frank Langella (All The Way)

- Nick Offerman (Fargo)

- David Schwimmer (The People vs. OJ Simpson)

- Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo)

JUST MISSED THE CUT: John Travolta (The People vs. OJ Simpson), Jeffrey Donovan (Fargo)

I was too young
to watch the O.J. Simpson trial, so I was never able to see Chris Darden is
action, but I do know that Sterling K.
Brownwas freaking amazing in The People vs. O.J. Simpson. Darden as a
character was torn between his mentor Johnnie Cochran and his friend Marcia
Clark while also doing his best to win a trial, and a PR war, that was getting
out of hand. He was so freaking good that he was able to overshadow some great
performances like that of Vance’s and Paulson’s… For the longest time, I was
convinced that Bokeem Woodbinewould deserve to win this award.
Now it’s a toss-up between him and Brown. Woodbine was great and I could wax
poetic about him all day, but for brevity’s sake, I urge you all to read this Vulture article instead… As mentioned above, Bryan Cranston is a beacon of
light in All The Way, but Frank Langella’s portrayal as Sen.
Richard Russell damn near matches Cranston step for step. Langella is no
stranger to portraying famous politicians and making them his own, and he
proved that once again in this HBO film… I would strongly argue that Kit Harringtonis a co-lead in the HBO film 7 Days in Hell, but since HBO threw him into this category, I think
he deserves praise in this category. The film is stupid in the best possible
way, and that’s elevated by Harrington’s daft portrayal of British tennis star
Charles Poole. He made everyone around him funnier including the likes of
Michael Sheen hitting on him and June Squibb as the Queen literally hitting
him… There are so many great acting performances in The People vs. OJ Simpson, but one that I keep coming back to his David Schwimmer’s portrayal of
Simpson’s dear friend Robert Kardashian. I know John Travolta will get
Schwimmer’s “spot” and that Schwimmer couldn’t stop screaming “Juice”, but I
just loved Robert’s arc going from loyal friend to finding out that friend is a
monster. David Schwimmer, especially with his sad eyes, was spot on casting…
Like FX’s other mini-series, Fargo
also has a huge cast with amazing performances like that from Jesse Plemmons
and Jeffrey Donovan, but the one that sticks out to me was Nick Offerman. I know
he’s not everyone’s favorite, but if we’re going by Emmy’s rules, then
Offerman’s submission episode is the best compared to that of his co-stars. His
episode “Rhinoceros” (The Assault on Precinct Minnesota) was the best in the
series and highlighted the best acting Offerman has ever done.

There is a reason that
#SlayHudgens was trending on Twitter the night that Grease: Live aired, and that’s because Vanessa Hudgens fucking slayed her performance as Rizzo. Not only
was she great in her own right, but knowing that her father had passed
literally the night before the live show aired added an extra layer of gusto to
her performance… Connie Brittonprobably has the least percentage
of screen time out of all the actresses nominated in this category, but she
sure made the most out of it in her performance of Nicole Brown Simpson’s
friend Faye Resnick in The People vs. OJ
Simpson. Her Emmy submission episode where Resnick, high on cocaine, writes
a tell-all book about Nicole and O.J. and then promotes the hell out of it is a
shining example of why Britton is an Emmy darling… Jean Smart has deservingly earned a ton of praise for her work as
the crime boss matriarch in Fargo,
but my personal favorite female performance in the show is the work of Cristin Milioti. Whether it’s her work
on How I Met Your Mother or the short
lived A to Z, Milioti brings such
warmth and energy to every performance that I’m surprised she’s not a bigger
star by now… Like her co-star, Melissa
Leo loses herself into the role of Ladybird Johnson in All The Way. The role itself doesn’t have very many juicy parts,
but Leo shows why she’s an Oscar-winner in this film… While Catherine Keenerdoesn’t have an Oscar yet, she proved why she’s a great
actress in the HBO mini-series Show Me A
Hero. Keener always beings a level of humanity and level-headedness to
every role she plays, which is why she was perfect as the sympathetic citizen
Mary Dorman.

BEST LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE

The Emmy’s separate Outstanding
TV Movie from Outstanding Limited Series, and unfortunately I have not seen
enough programs / enough that is truly award worthy to write a separate piece
like I did above; however, there are a handful of limited series and TV movies
that I wrote about or spoke about previously that are worth checking out and
that I would love to see get Emmy love.